Ashlock had never fought a psychic affinity cultivator or monster before. But compared to someone like Astralis, who could annihilate with the power of the stars, what could a beast with psychic affinity do? Capture his mind? Rewrite his memories? All terrible outcomes, but what could they do against overwhelming force? That was the root of Ashlock’s plan—fast and brutal. They would come in, Qi blazing, and ask questions later.
He didn’t like how unprepared and flimsy this plan felt, but he wasn’t left with many options. Should Ig’Zal take control of Zephyrine, he would be left with no choice but to fight Stella’s sister to the death, and the last thing he wanted was to take away any of Stella’s family.
This was likely to get messy, hence he had sent Stella away to safety. He had Larry’s domain to keep everyone alive, and all of his sect members’ infant souls were further secured by Soul Anchors to Red Vine Peak. The only ones truly at risk were Moros, as it could be destroyed, and Astralis, as he wasn’t part of the sect.
“I’ve found Zephyrine,” Ashlock said through Anubis. It hadn’t exactly been hard once Astralis pointed him in the right direction. Her spiritual presence had the weight of a black hole on the surroundings. “She is up ahead, atop a mountain peak with a large lunar moth floating before her, who I assume is Ig’Zal.”
Zephyrine was beautiful—a white-furred deer standing at around five meters tall. Ashlock had seen many monsters and cultivators, and Zephyrine was the only one so far that gave him that same otherworldly feeling as Senior Lee had. There was just this unmistakable aura of a higher being to her, as if she were gracing the world with her presence.
“What about the other Primal Overlords? Are they nearby?” Grand Elder Redclaw asked. Since they were traversing through the aether, only those with spatial-based affinities or super keen senses could tell what was happening in reality.
Honestly, Ashlock had almost forgotten about the Primal Overlords. Despite being peak Nascent Soul Realm beings, they were overshadowed by the two Monarch Realm beings locked in a staring contest, like tiny planets orbiting two stars.
“They are all here,” Ashlock confirmed after counting them. It was crazy to think each one of these monsters rivaled Vincent Nightrose in strength, and there were ten of them. But it also showed how much the Ashfallen Sect had grown that he was comfortable going on the offensive against so many strong enemies.
He had Larry, a Monarch Realm, on his side. Maple had left with Stella, clearly deeming this a fight he didn’t want to get involved in. Nyxalia also wasn’t here, as facing so many powerful souls would definitely cause her to lose control. Summoning her here would be a last resort.
“All I need to do is free Zephyrine from Ig’Zal’s mind control, and she should be able to handle all of them,” Ashlock mused. If somehow he couldn’t free her, then they had far bigger worries. He had also debated the idea of dropping Moros out of stealth and hunting the Primal Overlords one by one before tackling Ig’Zal, but he didn’t know how close Zephyrine was to getting her mind broken like Astralis.
So he had settled on a faster and more brutal plan. One that he believed had a higher chance of success but could also go wrong. Unfortunately, circumstances didn’t give him the luxury of picking and choosing his battle with Ig’Zal. He was being forced to make a move, and it was the best one he could think of, given the situation.
Anubis turned to face everyone. “The plan is simple. The moment Moros exits the aether, we are all going to attack Ig’Zal with everything we have. However, to avoid friendly fire, keep your distance, especially you, Larry,” he said, turning to face the silver ash spider. “Because you attack using your body, I want you to activate your domain and protect everyone. I’m not sure how Ig’Zal will fight back, so we need to be prepared. Freeing Zephyrine is our primary objective. Should that fail, we can focus on taking out the Primal Overlords, and I’ll turn them into Ents, which we can send to attack Ig’Zal. Worst case, we can always wear him down with endless attacks until he runs out of Qi.”
Everyone nodded at his words. He quickly distributed Mind Fortress pills to everyone, including Astralis. The dragon squinted at the pill but followed suit as he saw everyone else eating them. His system had informed him that they were unlikely to be enough to protect them from a Monarch Realm’s psychic domain, but any protection against mental manipulation shouldn’t be overlooked.
“Keep your wits about you and your mind sharp,” Ashlock said after the pills had been eaten. “Now get ready!”
The shields powered up, void and aether artillery flowers sprouted, and the members of the sect took their positions at the bow of the ship, their Star Cores humming in their chests and soul flames dancing along their backs.
The moment Moros was overhead, he began to phase his flagship out of the aether. While that was happening, he immediately mobilized his Qi through his connection with Erebus to tear open a desolation rift in the sky and had Veylorak fall through. The colossal mass of intertwined black roots eclipsed the sky and descended upon Ig’Zal and Zephyrine.
Veylorak wasn’t in the Monarch Realm, so Ashlock wasn’t delusional to think his newest Ent had a chance to kill either of them, but he hoped it would be enough to distract Ig’Zal for even a moment.
Yet, Ig’Zal was prepared. Behind the lunar moth, the ground ruptured in a violent explosion of stone and soil. From the gaping chasm rose a monstrous shadow, scales bristling with living thorns and ridges like razors—a titanic thorn-backed basilisk whose size dwarfed the two Monarchs. It was as if the mountain had grown legs, and as the monster stood over them, it seemed to be shielding them. Its entire body thummed with power as earthly soul flames blazed.
“That’s Tyranox, one of the weaker Primal Overlords,” Astralis informed them.
With an enraged bellow that dispersed the clouds above, Tyranox surged forward to meet Veylorak. Before Ashlock could command Veylorak to react, the basilisk’s eyes glowed with power, and a pulse of Qi shot forth, turning a section of Veylorak to stone. The behemoth’s massive jaw snapped shut around the stone area, crushing him. Though Veylorak’s serpentine body stretched for miles, his comparatively narrow build gave the basilisk a firm hold.
With thunderous force, Tyranox lifted, twisted, and tackled Veylorak off the mountain’s edge.
The mountainside broke like fragile porcelain under their combined weight. Trees snapped like toothpicks, and rock outcrops shattered as both behemoths tumbled down in a cataclysmic spiral. The impact dislodged entire cliffs, unleashing a landslide so immense that the mountain groaned in protest. Earthquakes rippled through the land as a tide of rubble thundered down in their wake, blotting out the area in a chaotic maelstrom of dust and stone.
Yet through it all, Ashlock could see that Ig’Zal had maintained his focus on Zephyrine. Now that Moros was entirely out of the aether, they were on a time limit to distract Ig’Zal before they were overwhelmed by the Primal Overlords quickly closing in.
“Fire.” Ashlock’s voice echoed like a decree, and the mountain exploded from the wrath that followed.
Astralis took to the skies, his body morphing into that of a colossal dragon. He cast a shadow over the land. At his command, the stars overhead pulsed, followed by beams of starlight lancing downward, each strike setting the dust cloud alight. Grand Elder Redclaw added to the fire as he raised his arms, and from his palms surged torrents of crimson hellfire. Beside him, Elysia wove mystic Qi into a swarm of floating eyes, each beating with unstable energy. With a wave of her hand, the swarm descended into the chaos and detonated with a cataclysmic explosion.
Ashlock gave the word, and Moros followed the assault of his sect members by releasing aether bombs that carried reality-shattering force—wherever they struck, they tore rifts into the world. But he wasn’t done. He also commanded Anubis to unleash volleys of shadow lances. The only power he held back was the void, as he didn’t want to accidentally kill the dazed Zephyrine.
His objective was to force Ig’Zal to direct his attention to them.
Raising the shadow lich’s hand, he closed it into a fist, signaling everyone to stop.
A brief silence descended onto the battlefield. It had only been a few seconds since Moros appeared. It was quite dark on the flagship’s surface as Astralis’s immense dragon form blanketed the sky and Larry’s ashen dome enveloped the ship.
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Grand Elder Redclaw and Elysia leaned over the edge, squinting at the mess below. So much Qi was swirling around that Ashlock couldn’t tell if they had been successful or not.
“Clear the air,” Ashlock commanded.
Astralis swooped down below Moros, and with a monumental flap of his wings, he dispersed the dust cloud that was on fire, revealing the mountain peak. It had changed significantly. There were craters everywhere, crackling with different types of Qi. The gray stone was charred black, but most significant of all…
Ig’Zal had vanished.
Zephyrine was alone on the mountain peak, looking up at them. There was something off about her. That perfect, ethereal appearance was lacking, and it wasn’t because of the dust dirtying her white fur or the marks left on her body. There were threads of otherworldly moth silk draping from her body.
“I have to thank you,” Zephyrine said, unnaturally smiling at them, “for weakening Zephyrine enough that I could infiltrate her dream realm.”
“Not good,” Astralis snarled in draconic as he retreated above Moros. “Zephyrine has been forced into a dream state. While still technically conscious, Ig’Zal is altering her reality.”
“How do we beat Ig’Zal without killing Zephyrine?” Ashlock quickly asked, panic setting in. Because from where he was looking, it seemed Ig’Zal had overtaken Zephyrine’s body.
“Ig’Zal is trapped in there. He abandoned his physical form and forced his way into Zephyrine’s subconscious, causing her to enter a dream state. The moment Ig’Zal runs out of Qi, Zephyrine will snap out of the dream state and can easily kill him in her own mind. What he’s doing is borderline suicidal,” Astralis explained. “We just need to buy time. There’s no way he can keep control of Zephyrine’s dream state for long. A few minutes at most.”
“It’s suicidal…” Ashlock muttered as Ig’Zal’s plan began to take shape. Having abandoned his body to briefly take over Zephyrine, there was only one way he could win. “I think he’s going to fight us to the death with Zephyrine’s body. If we kill her, he will survive.”
This was a good turn of events. If there was one thing Ashlock was well-versed in doing, it was surviving. He began directing Qi into Akasha. They had to retreat into the aether as soon as possible, as fighting Zephyrine here was a lose-lose scenario.
Unfortunately, Ig’Zal seemed to have caught on to his plan to flee before he had even started.
“Running so soon?” Zephyrine laughed and jumped into the air. In a moment, she was eye level with Astralis. Lunar moth wings sprouted from her back, and her eyes were ghostly white. “Astralis, could you stop them for me?”
The dragon sneered, “And why would I listen to you, Ig’Zal?”
Zephyrine tilted her head. “Did you think I was unaware that you overcame my mind control? If I had been oblivious, I would have called you here to guard me like the rest.” Her eyes pulsed with power. “Now obey.”
Ashlock now understood why Astralis’s mind had been left in such a mess—to make taking back control easier. The dragon fell deathly quiet and slowly lowered his massive head to look down at Moros. His eyes… they were empty. Cosmic Qi crackled along his wings before arcing out around Moros, creating a pseudo-cage of cracked space.
Moros had once again been spatially locked, unable to retreat into the aether.
Zephyrine smirked. “Now fall.”
[WARNING: Monarch Realm soul pressure detected—]
Ashlock didn’t need his system to warn him as he felt like the sky had fallen. The two layers of shields rippled, and the two Nascent Soul Realm Bastion Cores roared to life, their Qi spreading to every inch of the Bastion to try and keep it afloat.
This outcome was certainly less than ideal. Moros was locked in place, unable to teleport away or escape into the aether. One of their strongest allies had been turned against them, and their foe was hiding in the body of someone they didn’t want to kill.
But the battle was far from lost. Ashlock just needed to bunker down and buy time. So long as they remained within Larry’s domain, they would survive.
His Qi senses expanded, taking everything in. Minutes, that’s all the time he needed to buy for Zephyrine to come to her senses and purge Ig’Zal from her soul.
“Everyone get below deck!” Ashlock shouted through Anubis as he saw the stars in the sky begin to power up. Elysia and Grand Elder Redclaw scrambled to retreat into the more protected rooms below. If they were turned into ash statues, it would be easier if they were out of sight.
Already, he was feeling the absence of Stella. Although she did not possess as high a cultivation realm as the others, her synergy with Larry’s domain was particularly effective. The problem was that she couldn’t be here. Without the backup of an infant soul attached to a Soul Anchor, he didn’t want to take the risk.
He would just have to make do with who he brought.
“Here it comes!”
The star beams struck almost instantly. Larry’s domain resisted for a heartbeat, but holes were quickly seared through the ashen dome—and the blasts slammed into Moros.
Unlike before, when Moros was nearly cleaved in half, the enhanced shielding held. The newly inscribed runic circuitry, combined with the Bastion’s increased cultivation, formed a defense that refused to yield. The shields shimmered and warped under the assault, bubbling at the edges as the intense cosmic Qi tried to cut through.
Ashlock felt the strain on the Bastion’s Cores. Keeping the barriers intact demanded a severe draw on his Qi reserves, but they held. If there was one thing he had, it was oceans of Qi to throw at a problem.
However, nothing could have prepared him for what happened next. Astralis dove through Larry’s ashen dome, searing off a layer of his scales in the process. His titanic body slammed into Moros. The Bastion tilted drastically before finally buckling under the dragon’s immense weight, combined with the star beams, and was smashed into the mountain below.
“Ugh,” Grand Elder Redclaw grunted as he got back to his feet and helped Elysia. Despite their Nascent Soul Realm cultivation, this was a battle far above their league.
While the Bastion had been downed, Ashlock wasn’t too concerned yet. The Bastion could function the same on the ground as it did in the sky, and it wasn’t like they had a way to run.
“Akasha and Erebus,” he addressed the two spirit trees, “work together to sync your soul pulses to break through Astralis’s Spatial Lock so we can get out of here.”
In the meantime, he would deal with the dragon directly. He stared up at Astralis, standing over Moros, thinking of what to do. That’s when it dawned on him. It wasn’t Astralis he wanted to fight, but the one controlling the dragon’s mind.
Activating {Abyssal Whispers}, he targeted Astralis. Since he had already planted a seed within his consciousness earlier, Ig’Zal was unable to stop his infiltration.
Holding nothing back, he grew a demonic tree from the mental pothole where he had planted his seed and loomed over Astralis’s destroyed consciousness. Despite Ig’Zal’s claims, it seemed his reentry into Astralis’s mind hadn’t been a clean one, as the poor dragon’s consciousness somehow looked even more destroyed than the world outside.
What he assumed was Astralis’s ego took center stage, but it was tightly cocooned in moth silk. Hovering above it was a lunar moth, Ig’Zal. The mental projection of the moth turned to look at him curiously.
“This is a first,” Ig’Zal said, his voice soft and comforting. “Who might you be?”
“Death,” Ashlock said, and answered with violence. He flooded Astralis’s mind with desolation Qi. To his surprise, he utterly annihilated Ig’Zal, exploding the moth into a thousand motes of light.
Could a Monarch Realm really be so weak? Ashlock didn’t believe his one-sided victory was legitimate. He looked around, inspecting the motes of light as they drifted and seemed to gravitate toward the potholes, just like the one Ashlock had grown out of.
“You crafty little…” Ashlock muttered as he mobilized his mental image to have roots surge out of the ground and cover the holes, but it was too late. A primal roar reverberated through Astralis’s consciousness.
“It’s not flesh and blood that shape us, but the memories we have,” Ig’Zal said from everywhere at once. “I wonder how Astralis will react after I plant a few of my own.”
At that moment, Ashlock developed a new distaste for mental manipulators. He ignored Ig’Zal and did his best to plug up as many of the mental potholes as possible, cursing himself for not foreseeing all of this. Astralis had been an obvious weak link—he shouldn’t have come. The roar grew louder to the point where the air was literally vibrating, and then, to his shock, it became strong enough to obliterate the mental tree he had grown, forcing him out of Astralis’s mind.
The dragon had gone feral. With reality-warping claws, he swiped at Moros’s shields and opened his mouth—his throat glowed as if he had swallowed a star. Clamping his mouth on Moros’s shield, a star beam of unbelievable force blasted into the shield. Like a dragon-sized plasma saw, he burned a hole through the layers that Ashlock couldn’t repair in time. Astralis reached in with his monstrous claw and swiftly pulverized Grand Elder Redclaw and Elysia into ashen statues as if it were nothing.
Ashlock quickly sprang into action and used telekinesis to drag the statues away as Larry surged forward, his ashen crown spinning to lock Astralis’s arm in place with his soul pressure. Larry then began to devour Astralis’s arm, turning it into ash to repair the dome and regrow his body.
They managed to push the enraged dragon away and restore the shields.
“Just a minute or two more!” Ashlock shouted through Anubis. They were so close to victory, he could almost taste it. Suddenly, he got verification from Akasha that the Spatial Lock had been broken.
They could escape.
Without hesitation, aether Qi enveloped Moros, and they retreated into the aether.
Ashlock let out a breath—they were safe.
“So you’re the one behind it all.”
A voice so close said, sending a chill down his bark.
He looked down, and standing right before Erebus was Zephyrine.
“Domain of Starwoven Delirium,” the Monarch Realm monster said, planting her head on Erebus’s trunk, and Ashlock felt a sudden buzzing in the back of his head.
[WARNING: Hostile intent detected]
[WARNING: Your consciousness is under attack. Activating Soul Fortress]
The buzzing grew increasingly louder and more intense as system messages flashed through his mind.
[Soul Fortress Failed]
Ashlock knew that was going to be the outcome—the system had warned him that his A-grade skill wouldn’t stand up against a Monarch Realm. But he had thought of a counter to this.
So what if he couldn’t block the mental intrusion? He would just have to give Ig’Zal a warm welcome into the chaos of his mind.
“System, redirect Ig’Zal’s domain into the ethereal root network,” Ashlock said. “Let’s see how he likes facing all of us.”
After all, he wasn’t alone here.
Ig’Zal wasn’t facing a lone tree… he was facing a whole forest.
Ig’Zal had bitten off more than he could chew, and it had begun with getting ahead of himself and thinking he could eat away at the great Zephyrine’s mind. While he had caught her in a trance by a stroke of luck, her mental fortitude eclipsed his Qi pool, meaning the moment he ran out of psychic Qi, those memories of him he had overwritten would return.
While he might have been able to escape before Zephyrine regained her senses, he would be hunted down and never be able to return to the spiritual spring—such was the punishment for defying Zephyrine, the guardian of the spring.
That had seemed like the worst-case scenario until the arrival of Moros. While Ig’Zal’s psychic Qi was potent, it limited his battlefields to mental realms. He didn’t have many answers to the onslaught of star beams and hellfire that had been directed at him out of nowhere.
Since Zephyrine was already in a trance state, he made an impulsive move. He discarded his physical body, and as nothing but a soul, he forced his way into Zephyrine’s dream realm. However, unlike a parasite that would feed off its host, Ig’Zal had to rapidly burn his own Qi to avoid being crushed within Zephyrine’s dream realm. Against a weaker opponent, he might have been able to stay hidden for years or even take over their mind. But with Zephyrine? Not a chance. He was in a race against time to find a solution, with the most pressing matter being the need for a new body. Souls couldn’t exist for long outside of a vessel, as the heavens would shepherd lost souls to the afterlife for reincarnation.
His only option seemed to be Astralis, which was less than ideal. Despite his arrogant speech of knowing the dragon had overcome his mind control, the dragon’s ego was far from tameable and too strong to overpower. At best, he could hide away in the recesses of Astralis’s mind for a few weeks and hope Zephyrine wouldn’t kill Astralis to get to him.
That’s when he appeared—the demonic tree in Astralis’s mind. It seemed perfect. By estimations, this demonic tree’s soul was in the mid-stages of the Nascent Soul Realm, and spirit trees weren’t known for having strong egos.
Ig’Zal had made up his mind. This demonic spirit tree would be his next vessel. Directing Astralis to break through the shields on that strange airship the tree seemed to be based on, he used Zephyrine to get in front of the tree. Planting her head on the bark, he activated his domain one last time and targeted the fragment of a soul he felt nestled within the black bark of this tree.
The first hint that something was off about this tree was the absurd level of mental defense it possessed for a Nascent Soul Realm. The moment his domain activated, a strange foreign force he had never encountered before surged forward and tried to push him back. He managed to press through it, but not without a fight.
Despite feeling something off about it, Ig’Zal had no choice but to press forward. If he were to try to retreat into Zephyrine’s dream realm, he would be crushed in seconds. He had to make the leap now or face the undazed Zephyrine’s wrath.
Reality faded away, and his mental form, which was an enormous lunar moth with wings seemingly spreading out to infinity and two massive moons for eyes, stared down at the soul fragment floating in the void.
Ig’Zal let out a sigh of relief. Here in the mental void, he was king.
Reaching forward with one of his feelers, he placed it onto the fragment.
“You’re going to become my new home,” Ig’Zal said, his tranquil voice echoing through the void. “Are you ready, little tree?”
[You have been granted access to the ethereal root network]
Golden letters manifested above the fragment—something Ig’Zal had never seen before in the thousands of times he had entered someone else’s consciousness.
“What?”
[Please enjoy your stay]
The golden words seemed to be taunting him, and Ig’Zal suddenly felt an intense pulling sensation on the feeler he had planted on the fragment. He tried to reel it back, but it was as if his feeler was stuck to the fragment with glue.
“What is happening?” he said, his voice slowly filling with panic. “Who are you?”
He didn’t receive an answer; the golden words hanging above the fragment simply disintegrated into dust, fading away into the void. A semi-translucent tree root sprang out of the back of the fragment, and like a curtain being pulled back, more of it became visible as it traveled out into the void. Ig’Zal watched intently—clearly the tree wanted to show him something.
The ghostly root continued to extend into the distance for a long time until suddenly, a demonic tree, much like the one he had seen in Astralis’s mind, appeared. It was linked by the ethereal root, yet it was smaller than the one he had seen before, and it seemed to radiate the presence of a Star Core Realm. Despite the great distance between himself and this tree, he could feel an aura of hatred toward him from it, almost like bloodlust.
Since when did trees have bloodlust?
He wondered.
It was pretty intense, but he could brush it off as the demonic tree was only in the Star Core Realm. However, the ethereal root continued sprawling out into the distance, revealing another demonic tree, and another, and another…
Soon, he was facing down thousands of demonic trees—all in the Star Core Realm and directing their bloodlust toward him, with more appearing by the second.
Ig’Zal was a Monarch Realm being with a focus on mental warfare, yet this was too much for him. He could crush the mind of one Star Core Realm monster like it was nothing, maybe even a hundred at a time. But when faced with the intense bloodlust of thousands being fed right into his own consciousness? It was too much.
He began to scream—a soul-wrenching cry of pure agony. He wanted out; he wanted to flee. Thrashing around in a fit of madness, he tore off his own feeler, disconnecting himself from the fragment.
Flapping his great wings, he retreated into the void, as far from these trees as he could get. His breathing was erratic, his mind a mess, and his soul on the brink of collapse. That had been an even more crushing experience than infiltrating Zephyrine’s dream realm.
Just whose mind had he dared to invade? Why was this fragment linked to a whole forest of demonic trees? Had he guessed the strength of this foe incorrectly? Was Astralis somehow the safer choice?
“I need to leave…” he cursed under his breath. Astralis should still be in a feral state. It would be difficult, and he might even need to burn some lifeforce, but he should be able to get that brute under some control if he left now.
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“You want to leave already?” A voice boomed through the void, rustling the leaves of every tree. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Ig’Zal looked in the direction of the voice, and in the far distance, on what seemed to be a mountain high above all the other demonic trees, was a tree that eclipsed all others. Not only was its size absolutely titanic, with massive branches curving up to form a kingly crown, but it was its immense presence that set it apart from the rest, as if it were projecting the weight of a world with every word.
He stayed there, feeling compelled to listen despite wanting to do nothing but flee.
The void suddenly took on a faint, grayish hue, like a fog, as nine moons stacked upon one another manifested one by one behind the demonic spirit tree. All of them were a pale white, except for the one backlighting the demonic tree, which radiated whispers of desolation and harmony dao.
Ig’Zal was stunned. As a lunar moth, he had an affinity for the moon. He knew that they represented many things, with their most significant being the fact that they were mirrors to reality. So, typically, wherever there was a moon, it watched over a plane of creation.
He looked up.
There were nine moons, representing the nine layers of creation. Only one was filled in, and it had the forces of destruction and creation competing on its surface.
It was as if he were gazing upon the beginnings of a new heavenly realm.
A crack reverberated through the void, and the great tree’s trunk split open, revealing an all-knowing eye that seemed to pierce his soul with its gaze.
“You seem lost, Ig’Zal,” the tree said. Every word carried the feeling that the direction of the conversation was already predetermined. “Driven by greed and the desire for control, you have ended up here. Before me. Now tell me, what is it you desire?”
What did he desire? That was the type of question asked by a being that stood so far above you that they didn’t even see you as a threat. In fact, they deemed keeping you alive a charitable action. Ig’Zal shivered as he felt like he was talking to a true god. He couldn’t believe he had dared to invade the mind of a god and was paying the price for it. What was his desire? He only had one in this moment.
“I want to live,” he said, and hesitated before adding, “in your new world.”
Stroke the god’s ego, that was his goal.
“Selfish till the end,” the tree said. There was a pause as it looked at him more deeply. “But a request I can grant.”
“Really—” Ig’Zal said with surprise, but that surprise turned to horror as he felt an intense pull across his entire body toward the fragment.
“Yes, I will grant your desire. Just not in the way you were expecting,” the tree said, seemingly amused. “You want to live in my new world? That’s a request I’m more than happy to grant.”
Ig’Zal resisted with all his might. His infinitely spreading wings flapped violently against the pull, yet no matter what he did, he was drawn closer. Pressed up against the fragment, he screamed as he slowly phased into it as if it were made of dense slime. Yet it felt like he was stepping into liquid fire as it burned his soul.
No, this isn’t fire. Ig’Zal thought as he analyzed his surroundings. It’s pure desolation Qi.
As he was being brought to ruin, he was dragged deeper, and then he exited the back of the fragment. A moment of hope bloomed in his mind. Had he escaped that torture? Was he being set free? Unfortunately, what awaited him was far worse.
Trapped inside the ethereal root, he was pulled toward the bloodthirsty forest in the distance. The immense pressure inside the root, combined with the desolation Qi breaking down his soul, caused him to feel his sense of self and consciousness slowly fading to black.
“No!” Ig’Zal screamed, “I refuse to die like this!” He thrashed around and fought with everything he had. Yet the soul pressure in here was somehow comparable to his Monarch Realm cultivation, and he had no strength left to fight.
“Who said anything about dying?” the amused tree’s voice tickled his mind. “You’re just being… recycled.”
“Recycled?!” Ig’Zal screeched with rage. “What does that even mean?!”
“I’m going to be putting your psychic Qi to better use. You see, my hungry offspring here could benefit from a boost to their intelligence by feasting on your Qi.” The tree paused. “But don’t worry, little moth, I won’t go back on my word. You will live through this ordeal.”
Ig’Zal didn’t believe that for a moment as his already elongated soul, being crushed and stretched to its limit in the ethereal root, encountered the first demonic tree. A small amount of his Qi was siphoned off and absorbed by the tree. He screamed in pain as his twin souls were pulled from one another and were then ripped apart and dragged down the roots in different directions. He managed to hold on to a sliver of consciousness for a few minutes as he was slowly absorbed by the forest of demonic trees.
How had this happened? He couldn’t believe this turn of events. As his consciousness faded, he couldn’t help but regret the decisions that led him here. He had it all, a Monarch Realm that had lived for an eon and risen to the upper echelons of not only the monsters but of all beings on the 9th layer.
Yet this is where his story ended? In the darkness of a godly tree’s mind, being used as fertilizer for a forest of hungry trees? While his life flashed before him, he tried and failed to fight against it.
Eventually, his sense of self faded into the darkness.
That was until he opened his eyes once more.
***
Ashlock watched as a ghostly moth was born from a cocoon in the Eternal Grove of Rebirth. As promised, he decided to give Ig’Zal a new life. Instead of letting what little was left of his soul be returned to the heavens, he redirected it to his own afterlife.
Since ninety-nine percent of his soul had been devoured by his offspring, instantly raising many of them by in cultivation and clearly improving their intelligence, Ig’Zal wouldn’t remember much of his past life—if anything at all. He was now a simple lunar month the size of a human hand, fated to fly through the Eternal Grove of Rebirth forever. Perhaps at the back of the moth’s mind, there would be this feeling that he used to be something more, something greater.
But they would never be anything more than a whisper.
The old Ig’Zal was gone, and Ashlock had won. Not quite in the way he had anticipated, but a victory nonetheless.
[Your psychic dao comprehension has significantly increased]
His system suddenly informed him of something unexpected.
“Oh, that’s nice,” Ashlock mused. If he empowered his Abyssal Whispers with psychic dao in the future, there was no doubt he could overwhelm the minds of more powerful enemies.
[While no sacrificial credits were gained as Ig’Zal’s Qi was distributed to your offspring, the conditions have been met to automatically upgrade {Soul Fortress [A]} to the next grade]
[Upgraded {Soul Fortress [A]} -> {Soul Forest [S]}]
[Soul Forest: Mental and soul-based attacks can be redistributed through your ethereal root network to your offspring. You will also be alerted if any mental or soul-based attacks are used against your offspring. Furthermore, any failed attacks against your soul can be reflected back to the attacker with the weight of your whole soul forest]
Ashlock could see why the upgrade had been essentially free. Besides the powerful-sounding reflect effect mentioned at the end, the skill essentially did something that he had managed to do on his own.
“Glad it became a skill, though. As a passive, it can be used by my offspring,” Ashlock mused. “Ever since the Serena Blacktide incident, I’ve been wary of harm coming to my offspring, and I suppose I never thought about it before, but if Ig’Zal had encountered one of my offspring before I got this strong and took it over, he could have reached me through the ethereal root network.”
Thankfully, mind controllers shouldn’t be much of a threat moving forward. If Ig’Zal held up that terribly when facing him and his offspring, he couldn’t imagine anyone who wasn’t multiple realms above him surviving now that he had an S-grade skill backing him up.
Ashlock’s vision blurred as he moved away from the Grove of Eternal Rebirth and went to find Stella. She was sitting on the bench under his canopy, staring at the floor with a distant gaze.
“Stella,” he said, snapping her out of her stupor. “We won.”
“Ig’Zal is dead?” she quickly asked the sky.
“As far as anyone but the heavens are concerned? Yes. He’s dead as can be,” Ashlock replied as he moved his Qi to tear open a desolation rift leading to Moros.
Stella slowly stood up and eyed the rift. “What’s this for?”
“With Ig’Zal dead, someone very powerful is about to break out of their daze, and I want you to be there to speak with her,” Ashlock chuckled. “Cheer up, Stella. You’re about to meet your older sister.”
Stella stood before the desolation portal with a knot in her stomach. Despite being asked to leave Moros, she had been meditating next to Ashlock’s trunk, intently listening to the pulse of his soul to get an idea of how the battle was going. The amount of Qi gushing out of his soul into his root network and out into the land was concerning enough, but the sudden immense presence shocked her out of her meditation.
There was no doubt about it—that was the presence of a Monarch Realm being. For a while, she feared Ig’Zal had managed to take over Ashlock.
Nymeria, who had followed her back to Red Vine Peak, assured her that she had nothing to worry about, but Stella was too restless. Desperate for an answer, she had questioned the other demonic trees on Red Vine Peak about what was going on, much to Nymeria’s confusion. By rustling their leaves, Stella was able to discern that everything would be fine.
Returning to her bench, she sat with Nymeria in silence and awaited the verdict of the battle. What she hadn’t expected was for it to be over so soon. In less than an hour, Ashlock had returned, telling her Ig’Zal was dead and that it was time to meet her sister.
My sister… a monster made from the World Tree’s sap, just like me. A failed experiment by those bastards from the Celestial Empire to try and craft the perfect cultivator. She bit her lip. Would Zephyrine be happy to see her? Could they get along? Did Zephyrine even know she had siblings?
“Are you okay, Stella?” Nymeria asked, the corner of her vaguely serpentine eyes lifting ever so slightly in concern.
Stella gave the dragon girl a weary smile. “Yeah—just overthinking things as usual.” Hardening her expression, she turned back to the portal. With a quick breath, she took a step forward and felt the chill of the desolation rift embrace her. All around her was swirling corruption like a yawning portal to hell, kept at arm’s length but threatening death as it violently tore through reality. She walked through it, her mind racing and heart pounding with every step. What would she find on the other side?
The smell of burnt charcoal hit her nose first, followed by the feeling of chaos. As a relatively high-level cultivator, she was attuned to the Qi around her. While reality was usually orderly and calm, this was anything but that. Dozens of different Qi types crackled violently through the air, competing for domination over one another.
Stella turned off her spiritual senses and focused on what was before her. She stood on the bow of Moros, under the shade of Akasha, looking out over a ruined landscape. Pillars of smoke rose from wildfires in the valleys. Mountains had collapsed into crumbling landslides, rivers steamed, blanketing the land in fog. It was utter destruction, and looming over it all were a few giant monsters.
A bone-plated hydra with six rotting heads stood atop a ridge, each maw leaking pale death Qi mist. On the opposite ridge stood a scarab, its polished platinum shell reflecting the destruction under the sunlight. It stared back at her with deep emerald eyes. With the aura of peak Nascent Soul Realm radiating off them, they were no doubt Primal Overlords, as was the basilisk at the bottom of a ravine, being tied up by Veylorak.
Stella didn’t need to guess why they weren’t daring to attack. Between Moros and the Primal Overlords was a vague spider-shaped cloud of shimmering silver ash. It was Larry, the Monarch Realm guardian of the Ashfallen Sect. He floated in the air, his crown of ash spinning, and even from here she could feel the immense soul pressure radiating off Larry, pinning a very injured-looking Astralis to the ground below. There was also a swarm of ash spiders covering Astralis’s body, seemingly devouring any Qi the dragon tried to manifest.
Why is Larry restraining Astralis like that? Stella wondered, but looking closer only raised more questions. Just an hour ago, Astralis had been our ally. Did something change? Perhaps a betrayal?
Nymeria mirrored her confusion as she furrowed her brows and stepped up to the edge, shouting in a panic, “Father! What happened?!” Astralis didn’t answer his daughter’s plea; instead, he kept trying to fight the soul pressure like a feral dog.
Anubis rose from the shadows behind them, and Ashlock gave them an explanation.
“Astralis had fake memories planted in his mind by Ig’Zal and went feral on us. Larry easily restrained him and is now keeping tabs on most of the other Primal Overlords while we wait for Zephyrine to awaken.”
“What is going to happen to my father?” Nymeria asked with deep concern on her face.
The shadow lich looked down at the restrained dragon, who could barely raise his head under Larry’s immense soul pressure. “Once he calms down a little, I will take him to my Inner World, where his soul and mind can heal. In time, he should recover to what he once was. But I have to warn you, the damage done to his consciousness by Ig’Zal was severe. Memories were wiped and altered, which might cause a change in his personality if they can’t be restored.”
Nymeria winced at the explanation, but she still bowed deeply. “Thank you for your kindness,” she said, while her hair hid her expression.
Ashlock waved Anubis’s hand dismissively. “It’s the least I could do.”
“Where are the others? Are they alive?” Stella asked Ashlock.
The shadow lich nodded and gestured behind them. “Kaida, alongside Elysia and the Redclaw Grand Elder, are holding off the Primal Overlords on that side.”
Stella followed the lich’s hand, and her attention was captured by something else entirely. Below Erebus, an ethereal white-furred deer was peacefully curled up in a nook between Erebus’s roots, sound asleep. The translucent grass around Moros, which was in front of her snout, swayed rhythmically with her soft breathing. The scene was so peaceful, in stark contrast to the destruction and tensions that were now behind her.
“So that’s Zephyrine,” Stella whispered, as if afraid of waking her. “My elder sister.”
Anubis nodded, and Ashlock further explained. “Ig’Zal discarded his body and forced himself into her dream realm to dodge our assault, putting her into a dazed state that he could briefly control. Once he fled her mind and tried to enter mine, I thought she would reawaken. But it seems she’s quite enjoying her nap instead,” he chuckled quietly.
“What’s so funny?” Stella asked, raising a brow at the shadow lich.
“Nothing much, it’s just that despite looking so different, her slothfulness seems to mirror yours. I can see you two being sisters.”
Stella smirked, and some of the tension left her stiff shoulders. “That’s rich coming from you. If not for the beast tide being on our doorstep, you would happily sleep all the time,” she pointed out.
“True. I’m hoping once all of this is over, I can sleep as peacefully as Zephyrine is right now.”
“I hope so too,” Stella said, smiling at him. “You’ve worked hard, Tree.”
“Now, now, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves,” Anubis shook his head. “We can only rest if an agreement can be met with Zephyrine over there, and I sure hope one can, because if she decides to fight us, this is going to get bloody.”
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“Wasn’t Ig’Zal quite easy to defeat?”
“Ig’Zal was a fool. He thought I was easy pickings and faced my entire forest. Zephyrine is a different story. Not only is she many stages into the Monarch Realm, but she seems to possess storm affinity, which, as we have seen already, is a great counter to Larry, who would be one of the only ones in our sect that stands a chance against her.”
Stella slowly nodded as she continued to watch the softly sleeping deer. At a glance, Zephyrine looked like a fragile flower, but turning on her spiritual perception again, Stella confirmed that it was anything but a facade. Zephyrine radiated an all-encompassing aura like she had never felt before. It resembled a heavily restrained storm, ready to explode out and devour the world at a moment’s notice.
“I was hoping you could wake her up,” Ashlock said. “I don’t know how long the Primal Overlords will stay put before attacking, and I want to know Zephyrine’s thoughts about them before killing them all.”
Stella bit her lip and clenched her fist. The tension from before was back, rising from the pit of her stomach as questions weighed on her mind. “I’ll do it,” she said, her confident words masking her true feelings. Deemed not strong enough to participate in the fight, this was her moment to redeem herself.
Walking forward with careful, quiet steps toward Zephyrine, she could feel her heart pounding in her chest like a drum. The blood rushed past her ears, and she could hear her own restrained breathing. Instead of approaching a peacefully sleeping deer, she felt like she was encroaching on the cave of a slumbering god.
Stopping two meters away, Stella slowly crouched down as if she were trying to catch a skittish animal without scaring it off. Zephyrine’s ear suddenly twitched, and one of her eyes opened.
Stella froze.
There was no hatred in Zephyrine’s gaze, just peaceful curiosity. Stella stayed deathly still and quiet as Zephyrine’s other eye opened and she slowly raised her head. It wasn’t until Zephyrine’s head was far above her, looking down, that Stella realized that Zephyrine was no ordinary deer—she was huge
. She had hidden it well while curled up and nestled among Erebus’s exposed roots. Not only was her body over twice the size of any deer she had seen before, but the antlers on her head were like a tree canopy with how large they were.
Stella gulped, any attempt to speak failing horribly. She felt like a fly caught in a spider’s trap, awaiting judgment.
Zephyrine’s ears perked up, and her snout twitched. Never breaking eye contact, she leaned down and sniffed Stella’s hair. She was so close that Stella could feel her warm breath. Slowly pulling back, Zephyrine seemed to scrutinize her up and down once again.
“Child,” she said, her voice calm and pleasant like a spring breeze, “why do you smell so familiar?”
“I—I’m Stella Crestfallen,” she stammered and internally cursed herself. Why did she usually have no problem speaking to higher beings, but when it was someone whose opinion of her she cared about, she froze up like this?
“Crestfallen?” Zephyrine tilted her head. “That long-lost human bloodline?”
Stella nodded, but it was the first time she had heard it referred to as a human bloodline. “From your reaction, it sounds like you don’t possess the Crestfallen bloodline?” she asked.
“I do not,” Zephyrine said.
“But there is something I believe we share in common,” Stella said, fidgeting with her cloak. “We were both born from the World Tree’s golden sap, right?”
Zephyrine paused, her eyes narrowing.
Stella felt her heart skip a beat. Had she said something wrong?
“You’re right,” Zephyrine muttered, her voice filled with a sense of wonder. “I couldn’t pin down what that smell was as it’s been so long, but you smell like Mother.”
Before Stella could reply, the storm she had feared before exploded out of Zephyrine and tightly surrounded her form. Stella stepped back and stared at the vortex of wind that was dense and chaotic; she couldn’t even peer into it. As fast as it came, it subsided, revealing Zephyrine in a new form—that of a humanoid woman.
Smaller now—no taller than Stella—Zephyrine remained unmistakably herself. Her antlers still curved from her brow, commanding the elegance of an empress, and long, snow-white hair cascaded around pointed ears tucked flat against her head. Her eyes met Stella’s; they were an all-too-familiar, rich pink in color.
Stella felt like she was staring into a mirror, except Zephyrine’s gaze was calm and pleasant, unlike her own crazed glare. Their similar features aside, Stella could feel a connection with Zephyrine that was unmistakable.
“We really are sisters,” Stella said, a tear freely running down her cheek.
Zephyrine smiled and stepped forward. “I never knew I had a little sister.” She embraced her in a slightly awkward hug, likely because she wasn’t used to a human form. They stayed like that for a full minute, enjoying each other’s embrace.
“How is Mother?” Zephyrine said out of nowhere.
“Still suffering,” Stella said, her chin resting on Zephyrine’s shoulder. She was warm, and her white hair was far too soft and comforting.
“Don’t worry,” Zephyrine said, a sudden ruthlessness edge to her voice. “I’m going to kill them all—every last one that has harmed and abused Mother for power. Will you help me, sister?”
Stella nodded, tightening her hug.
“Good. I knew any sister of mine wasn’t going to be afraid of a fight,” she paused, her voice regaining its softness. “You can call me Zeph moving forward.”
Stella smiled. “That’s a cute name.”
Eventually, Zephyrine released her and stepped back. “Honestly, what a surprising thing to wake up to after the deepest sleep I’ve had in centuries. I should thank that moth sometime.” Yawning and stretching her back, she glanced at the shadow lich that had been patiently waiting close by. “I assume you are the one behind this, or should I say the one controlling you?”
She switched her gaze to Erebus, where Ashlock’s soul fragment was. A flash of realization appeared on her face, only to be quickly concealed. “Desolation Qi,” she muttered, “you’re the one who’s been making things difficult for me.”
“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it,” Ashlock said through Anubis, chuckling. “Though I’d argue you’re the one making life difficult for me. The name is Ashlock, a demonic spirit tree to the south, and I’ve come in hopes of a peaceful negotiation.”
“Mhm? What is there to negotiate?” Zephyrine said, crossing her arms under her chest and keeping her gaze firmly locked onto Erebus.
Stella debated stepping in but wanted to let Ashlock handle it first.
“The beast tide is your creation, is it not?”
Zephyrine nodded. “While the World Tree manages the spiritual springs, I created a structured hierarchy of monsters that help nurture as many strong ones as possible, all for my goal of invading the Celestial Empire one day.”
“Then we share the same goal, you and I: To free the World Tree and topple the tyrannical Celestial Empire,” Ashlock assured Zephyrine.
Zephyrine seemed suspicious. “Why do you want to overthrow the Celestial Empire?”
“My personal reasons aside, Stella is my adopted daughter. Freeing her mother has been a long-term goal for both of us, and I’ve even spoken to the World Tree. She was the one who recommended I come to seek you out.”
Zephyrine’s entire demeanor softened. “I see. Well, I will never say no to the help of another Monarch Realm being.”
“I’m actually at the fifth stage of the Nascent Soul Realm,” Ashlock corrected her, stunning Zephyrine.
“What? Your words carry the weight of an Inner World, and you have been holding back the advance of the beast tide for weeks by yourself. I refuse to believe such a thing.”
“He really is,” Stella said, backing up her dad.
“Terrifying,” Zephyrine whispered, her eyes flashing with curiosity. “Is there a way I could meet you? I’ve always been obsessed with how to grow stronger, and I would love to exchange pointers.”
Anubis gestured to the desolation portal that was still open. “Feel free, but first I must ask. What do you plan to do with the Primal Overlords?”
“Why do you ask?”
“I was hoping to devour them or turn them into Ents under my dominion as they tried to fight me,” Ashlock explained. “However, to be fair, their minds were overtaken by Ig’Zal and should recover with time. Hence, I wished to ask you first.”
Zephyrine surveyed the Primal Overlords who awaited in the distance. A breeze passed by, likely an information-gathering technique.
“Would it be possible to let them live?” Zephyrine asked carefully. “If one misbehaves or goes against the goal, I don’t mind if you eat them. But I’ve basically raised them like children until now, and we will need them to fight against the Celestial Empire, as each one isn’t that far from reaching the Monarch Realm.”
“That is possible, assuming you grant my request.”
“What is your request?”
“Have the beast tide avoid my lands,” Ashlock said. “I agree we need the monsters to attack the Celestial Empire, but millions of mortals live under my rule, and as a demi-god, I require their worship for divine energy. A fight between me and the beast tide benefits neither of us and brings us further from our goal. So, what do you say? Can you reroute the beast tide away from me?”
Zephyrine fell silent and mulled over Ashlock’s request for a long time.
“You don’t want to do it?” Ashlock asked, breaking the silence.
“It’s not that I don’t want to do it,” Zephyrine said, sighing. “It’s that I can’t.”
“You can’t do it?” Stella asked with confusion. “Aren’t you the leader of the beast tide?”
“In theory, yes… but there’s someone who sits above me.”
“Who sits above you?” Ashlock asked, hiding the annoyance in his tone. He had expended an immense amount of effort to reach Zephyrine, only
“Who sits above you?” Ashlock asked, hiding the annoyance in his tone. He had expended an immense amount of effort to reach Zephyrine, only to be told she couldn’t help him. What was this, some sort of phone call with the bank where he was stuck being endlessly passed up the layers of management until someone with actual authority could help him?
“The World Tree,” Zephyrine said, looking into the distance. “She is the one who artificially creates the spiritual springs and leads the beasts around via the ley lines. I just gave the spiritual springs more structure and summoned a storm to get the monsters moving when the Qi suddenly started to deplete.”
“But I spoke with the World Tree, and she couldn’t stop it either. I was told to speak with you,” Ashlock grumbled.
“While working together to raise this force of monsters to free her, we are unable to speak with one another. Perhaps she believes I have far more control than I actually do?” Zephyrine sighed. “The beast tide is an unstoppable force that even I can’t shepherd to the extent you are requesting of me.”
“Not even with your storm?”
Zephyrine shook her head. “The storm was to motivate the monsters to move on as I filled it with Qi to supplement their journey away from the dying spiritual spring. It doesn’t work as a threat. Whether the storm is there or not, they will go where they please unless I start killing them.”
“Hold on, when you say the spiritual spring is dying, what do you mean?”
“A few months ago, I noticed the edge of the spiritual spring rapidly closing in. For whatever reason, my mother wasn’t providing enough Qi through her roots to maintain the Qi-rich land. Because of this, the monsters started fighting and even encroaching on the Primal Overlords’ lands. The death of the weaker monsters serves us no benefit, as they are useful for weakening the sects we encounter along the leyline, such as yours. So I made the decision to have us move early.” Zephyrine paused as her eyes widened. “I think you’re the reason the spiritual spring began to dry up.”
“Me?” Ashlock said, surprised at the sudden accusation. “What do I have to do with it? I just got here.”
“The amount of desolation Qi you were pumping out to fend off the tide isn’t possible without draining your reserves dry,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “I’ve heard spirit trees are well-versed in gathering Qi from their surroundings. Did you happen to do anything a few months ago that could cause a drop in the World Tree’s Qi output to the north?”
Ashlock didn’t have to think for long. A particular incident of him connecting his roots to the leyline and stealing Qi from it surfaced in his mind. He had stolen quite a lot to fuel his offspring and his own cultivation, and that draw only increased as the beast tide approached and he had to mount a defense.
In a twisted way, it seemed his greed had brought on his own downfall.
“Ah… you might be right,” Ashlock said. “I’ve been siphoning Qi from the leyline.”
Zephyrine crossed her arms and looked understandably annoyed. “That Qi is not for you. It’s for the beast tide,” she said, venom in her tone. “Do you know how much Qi I’ve wasted because of you?”
Looking into Zephyrine’s eyes, Ashlock felt genuine fear.
Opening a small desolation portal, he dropped a spirit root improvement truffle into Anubis’s hand. This was the most potent one he had, a perfect truffle he had been saving for a special occasion.
“Qi comes and goes, but let me make it up to you. By eating this, it will help you progress in your cultivation faster than before,” he said, and had Anubis hold out the truffle for Zephyrine to take. Newest update provided by novel·fire·net
She eyed the truffle. “Why are you giving me a mushroom? Is this some spirit tree apology custom I’m unaware of?”
Stella burst out laughing, instantly killing the tense atmosphere.
“Is this supposed to be a joke?” Zephyrine asked Stella.
“No, no, Ashlock is serious. Wars would be fought for that truffle. I just can’t take this situation seriously anymore after imagining Ashlock apologetically giving someone a basket of mushrooms. Sorry, ignore me,” Stella said, wiping a tear from her eye.
Zephyrine gracefully plucked the truffle from Anubis’s hand and analyzed it as if it were a precious egg. Sniffing it, she seemed somewhat convinced. “I can smell the density of Qi stored in here, but otherwise, I can’t see why it would be so special.”
“Eat it and find out,” Ashlock said.
“I don’t usually eat unknown foods from beings I just met,” Zephyrine said, glancing at Stella, who was still trying to recover. “But if my sister swears by it, then I’ll give it a try.”
Ashlock watched with anticipation as Zephyrine nibbled at the truffle like a rabbit. After swallowing, she tilted her head as if confused by something. Taking a far larger bite, her interest seemed to increase as she ate faster and then devoured the whole thing.
“These are incredible. The change is small, but I can feel the Qi flowing through my spirit roots improving ever so slightly.”
As expected of a monster birthed from the World Tree’s sap to be a perfectly crafted cultivator, her spirit root purity was already incredible. If anything, Ashlock was surprised his truffles could improve them at all.
Holding out her hand, she stared at Anubis.
“What?” he asked.
“Do you have another one?”
“I do…”
“Give it to me.”
Ashlock stared at Zephyrine. Why did she remind him so much of Stella?
Reluctantly, he brought out another truffle and handed it over. Zephyrine gobbled it down with gusto and then held out her hand again.
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“You want another?! Just how greedy are you?”
“Greedy? I think we will be even if you give me a dozen more,” Zephyrine said.
Ashlock didn’t want to seem like a pushover, so he said, “One more, and that’s all I’ll give you for now. I have some other truffles that grant different effects if you are interested?”
Zephyrine took the third offered truffle, her ears twitching with interest. “Such as?”
“Heart demon removal, and there’s also one that makes you more beautiful. Actually, on second thought, the heart demon removal might be dangerous. As a monster, your body is corrupted with demonic Qi, and I’ve never seen the strength of a Monarch Realm heart demon.”
“What? I want it. Both of them,” Zephyrine said, holding out her hand again.
“How about I give them to you after we have figured out how to stop the beast tide?”
Zephyrine frowned. “I already told you, only the World Tree could stop the beast tide. My storm merely served as a blanket to shield them and provide Qi, motivating them to move. Storm or not, the beasts will move down the leyline regardless of what I do.”
“But if Mother stops providing Qi to the leyline, all the cultivators around Red Vine Peak will suffer, and the beasts will only be more motivated to charge down the leyline to the next spiritual spring,” Stella said, providing another point of view.
“So the beast tide is unstoppable,” Ashlock said, but paused as he realized they were looking at this the wrong way. Zephyrine had taken his request literally, as if she could command a million monsters to take a massive detour around Ashlock’s lands to the next spiritual spring.
Of course, that wasn’t possible. The monsters were independent beings who all sought to reach the next spiritual spring as quickly as possible to secure a suitable location for cultivation, as being late was practically a death sentence anyway. Because of this, they would fearlessly take the most direct path, which just so happened to run through Ashlock’s lands, as he was situated dead center on the leyline.
“That’s actually fine,” he said, surprising everyone. “I never feared the beast tide in the first place. My main concerns were you, Zephyrine, and the storm you summoned, which made it incredibly difficult to fight the monsters. Would it be possible to retract your storm, or at least have it avoid my lands?”
Zephyrine nodded. “I’d be happy to do that. As I’ve already summoned it, I think it’s best to keep the storm going as it will help once we reach the Celestial Empire, but I can certainly have it avoid your lands. But the monsters will still come, you know?”
“That’s fine. As I said, it wasn’t the waves of weak monsters I feared. If anything, I welcome them. My concerns were the storm that made fighting any monsters far more difficult, and your involvement.”
Ashlock felt like this was actually a best-case scenario. He had always seen the beast tide as a buffet. Without the storm, his desolation Qi could significantly weaken the monsters. Then his own tide of Ents could handle them, endlessly bolstering their numbers and feeding the stronger corpses to him for sacrificial credits.
“I see. Well, so long as the majority of the monsters survive, I don’t see an issue with this,” Zephyrine said.
“Actually, I can turn monsters into beings that listen to me. I call them Ents,” Ashlock said, and had Anubis gesture to himself. “This shadow lich is one such example. So don’t worry, the beast tide’s strength will only increase with my involvement.”
“Then I have nothing to worry about,” she said, looking into the distance again. “I believe it will be easier to redirect my storm around your lands if I were to visit them. Should we go now?”
“I’ll lead you, Zeph!” Stella said excitedly, standing beside her sister.
“Thank you, Stella.” Zephyrine smiled and followed her lead to the portal. Before walking through, Zephyrine spoke into the wind and instructed the Primal Overlords to avoid fighting and await her return.
She then passed through, vanishing with Stella.
“Everyone, we are heading back,” Ashlock called out to Larry, Kaida, Grand Elder Redclaw, and Elysia.
“Master, what should we do about Astralis?” Larry asked.
Ashlock glanced over the side of Moros and saw the dragon being practically devoured by a swarm of ash spiders while thrashing around on the ground. The feral dragon was being pinned down by the combined efforts of the spiders and Larry’s soul pressure. The moment they left, there was no telling what damage Astralis would cause.
“Work with Veylorak to drag him to my Inner World where I will try to heal him under the nine moons,” Ashlock instructed as one by one, his sect members floated back to Moros. Once everyone was aboard, he tore open a massive desolation rift before Moros and had the flagship pass through.
Their excursion into the beast tide, while chaotic and brutal, had come to an end. He briefly surveyed the destruction and the Primal Overlords glaring at him before leaving. His vision blurred as he returned to Red Vine Peak, only to find Zephyrine staring up at him.
“I thought you would be bigger,” she said, disappointment on her face.
“How do I compare in size to the World Tree?” Ashlock asked.
Zephyrine snorted, “Maybe you would reach the top of one of her exposed roots? Or could be considered a small branch.”
Ashlock couldn’t even picture the scale of such a tree. Just how large would her soul be in that case? It was no wonder the leyline he sat on was nothing but one of her roots.
“Now, let me see what I’m working with,” Zephyrine said. Her body exploded in a storm, and within a moment, she had transformed back into a beautiful, white-furred deer. Towering over Stella and Nymeria, she effortlessly jumped a thousand meters into the air.
Stella blinked in confusion as she looked up at Zephyrine, who was now a tiny speck against the sky. “How did she do that?! Even teleportation isn’t that fast.”
“I have no idea,” Ashlock muttered. If they had to fight, how could he possibly ever hit Zephyrine with a skill or technique if she had speed like that? Even the void lightning from his {Voidstorm Aegis [S]} skill didn’t travel that fast. Worst of all, she had made it look so casual and effortless…
Just what were true Monarch Realm monsters capable of? Ig’Zal had been an easy matchup, and the World Tree came across as weak despite her truly ridiculous Qi pool as she was restrained by a formation.
But Zephyrine was the real deal.
The deer in question closed her eyes, and a gale gathered around her, rustling her snow-white fur. “Mhm, I see,” Zephyrine said, her eyes slowly opening. “Your roots spread quite far.”
“The monsters can pass over my roots, that’s fine. I just want the storm to avoid the cities where possible,” Ashlock told her. “With the storm gone, I can handle any monsters that trespass into my lands.”
“Very well,” Zephyrine said coolly. Storm Qi coalesced before her into a dense, crescent-shaped mass, crackling with raw power. She poured more Qi into it, the air trembling with strain, until the construct could hold no more. With a casual blow as if she were snuffing out a candle, the crescent detonated outward, streaking across the sky like a tidal wave of shrieking wind. As it collided with the storm blanketing the beast tide on the horizon, Ashlock watched in awe as the oppressive clouds were peeled back like a curtain, revealing the millions of monsters that had been concealed beneath.
Gone was their cover—the only thing that had been saving them until now.
“I leave the rest to you,” Zephyrine said, falling back to Red Vine Peak with as much speed as she had ascended. Ashlock had to blur his vision to keep up with her.
Transforming back into a human, she sat down on Stella’s bench and held out her hand. “I want those truffles now.”
“Stella, can you deal with your sister for me?” Ashlock asked, handing over the responsibility to Stella. His vision was entirely focused on the buffet before him.
Opening his sign-in system, he checked what he had to work with.
Idletree Daily Sign-In System
Day: 3686
Daily Credit: 6
Sacrifice Credit: 840
[Sign in?]
“840 credits?” He looked to the million monsters on the horizon. “Let’s see if I can gather 10,000 by the end of the day.”
He tore desolation rifts open in the sky as he mentally commanded every remaining Bastion he had to take to the skies, including Serena Blacktide, who served as the guardian tree of Ashfallen City. The mountain trembled as he mentally commanded Geb, the Mudcloaks’ walking fortress, to rise, and he called on Douglas to gather the Mudcloaks and cultivators of the Ashfallen Sect.
He had no intention of holding back.
It was time to teach the monsters about the true overlords of this land.
It was time to fight back.
It was time for war.
